The online home of the self-published comics & prose anthology, Warrior27, an homage to Britain's early-80s comic magazine, Warrior - along with the various writings, musings, and miscellany of Dan Fleming and Chris Beckett.

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Writing - it's what we do

Like anyone working in a creative field – or, as in our case, aspiring to such an objective – Dan and I want to see our work published, want to share our work with others, and hope that what we have written elicits an emotional response (hopefully in a positive light) in our audience. It’s a bit of an ego thing, sure, but it’s also a desire to discover what works and what does not and to grow as writers. In the past five years since we embarked upon this journey, Dan and I have taken some baby steps toward this goal. We’ve published four issues of our anthology, Warrior27, and from that experience – especially the initial trek to Chicago – we have learned a lot. (hit the link for more on that first endeavor) The act of writing every day – I tap away at the laptop after everyone’s in bed while Dan has been chronicling his “Year in Crime” over at his other blog, and he has yet to miss a single day – has also been invaluable. Just being involved with writing on this consistent a basis has made me a far better writer. I understand technical aspects of writing better (things as simple as using a consistent tense or avoiding the passive voice when it suits no purpose, which is a vast majority of the time), and I find myself able to make connections – metaphorical and otherwise – that were beyond me two years ago. But I digress.Dan and I have experienced some small bit of success with regard to our writing. In 2008, Dan had a short story accepted for Arcana’s Dark Horrors 2 anthology. “Ticking Away” featured art by Nicolas Colacitti and was also featured in our third issue of Warrior27 and will be reprinted, in color, for the collection. And this past January, I had my first professional comic writing credit in Ape Entertainment’s online UFO anthology and also sold my first short prose story to Dark Recesses Press, both of which will see print for the first time in the new collection. It’s funny. These little crumbs help keep us going, pushing Dan and I forward in the hope of placing more stories with other publishers and possibly making this a full-time, part-time gig (because very few are able to earn a living only writing). We’ll see. But for now, things are good, and the reality is I’d find it difficult to stop writing now, even if I never got published again.chris